The Force Awakens (Dark Side)
by jlf13766
Summary: SPOILER: This follows the events of the movie, of the same name. Read at your own peril! This has Vader in it as I like Vader but this mostly has to do with Kylo Ren, in the beginning. If you want more, ask and you shall receive. Otherwise it will remain like this. Also check out my other story, The Force Awakens (Light Side)


**Summary: This takes place following the movie. I saw it and loved it! I hate cliff hangers but you know, they unfortunately had to do it even though we all want to see Episode 8 already.**

 **As some of you may know, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is my favorite and is the main character of the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy but there is speculation of him coming back in episode 8 which I would love to see. I don't know how he is going to come back but this mostly about the First Order, Kylo Ren and the Force Ghost (who may later come back to life... **SPOILER ALERT**) who is Darth Vader even though he appears as himself before having to wear the suit like the end of Episode 6 when he appears as Anakin Skywalker. They may say that only Jedi or the good/light side can become Force ghosts and Anakin returned to the good side by killing the Emperor but I disagree, he did it to save his son, he couldn't save Padme or his mother but he could save his son and did. Not to mention he is the Chosen One and did fulfilled his prophesy, I think he'd be immortal in the Force, regardless. Enough of me rambling, here is my take.**

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 **Resurgent-Class Star Destroyer Finalizer**  
 **First Order**

Kylo Ren was furious, how could a little woman with no Force training defeat him? It was an embarrassment! Of course, he was already injured but that wasn't the point, the point was he wasn't able to capture or kill her like he was supposed too. Even more embarrassing was the fact that she got Anakin's lightsaber instead of him. Why her? Was it because she was stronger in the Force or because of her bloodline. Which Ren was all too aware of.

What was more outrageous was that they were able to destroy the Starkiller base. It appeared that they hadn't learned from the Death Star's mistakes, the Galactic Empire's mistakes, but Starkiller didn't belong to him, it belonged to General Hux, that was his fault not Kylo's.

There was no point in blaming himself or taking his anger out on defenseless consoles and various equipment but it was a stress reliever although it did hurt with his injuries still bothering him a bit. They were in hyperspace now, Supreme Leader Snoke wants to see him for final training, whatever that meant, he wasn't sure. His father was dead, so what now he needs to kill his mom? His Uncle Luke? Luke was the most wanted by the First Order and it was Kylo's duty to kill him like he killed the Jedi apprentices before, but Luke wasn't going to be so easy. He may be old and rusty when it comes to the Force but his grandfather wouldn't kill him and Kylo didn't think he could either.

His whole turn to the dark side was trying to live up to Darth Vader's legacy. His grandfathers legacy, he died after killing the Emperor and he couldn't help but think of what life may be like had he not died. He wished he could be trained by him, but he couldn't, he was dead and all he had of him was his helmet that was partially burned since he was burned on the funeral pyre while wearing his suit and mask. The only difference was that Darth Vader needed the suit and mask to live, Kylo did it because it makes him look more scary and fearful and because it made him feel closer to Darth Vader.

"Killing people isn't going to make the light side go away." A voice said and Kylo jumped up with his lightsaber ignited as he turned and saw a Force ghost... it was Vader... but he wasn't dressed like Vader but he knew what his grandfather looked like before the suit and mask. "Neither is breaking consoles or supply boxes with your lightsaber."

"Darth Vader?" Kylo asked without wearing his mask since he was inside a private room with no one else around.

"Grandson, or Kylo." Vader said with a smile. "I, of all people, know what you're going through and taking your anger out on everything and everyone isn't going to help."

"You did it all the time!" Kylo rebutted speaking loudly but not shouting and Vader nodded.

"I did, but we are different." Vader said walking closer to him. "I did it because I was suffering everyday and the pain I felt was awful. I lost everyone I loved and I lost all of my limbs from Mustafar. I was suffering. I also didn't tolerate failure, like you. I Force choked everyone, sure but that didn't help me block the light side. Killing all of the Jedi didn't help either. I still had a little bit of Jedi left in me and that made me more angry than anything which is another reason why I lashed out. You see, we were never like Sidious or Snoke, we were raised as Jedi, but we had attachments, we had fear and anger unlike true Jedi. We were meant to be Sith, but we aren't like them, we were also meant to be Jedi, but we aren't like them either. No one ever said that there could only be two sides of the Force, there are no absolutes."

"But... I'm not a Sith. I am a Knight of Ren." Kylo said, which was true but a Knight of Ren isn't exactly a Jedi...

"You are, true." Vader said as he folded his arms across his chest. "But a Knight of Ren is closer to the Sith than anything. Look at your powers, it is more Sith than Jedi."

"Why are you wearing Jedi garb?" Kylo asked as he noticed his clothing, he knew the face from the research he did but he never knew the full history, the history that isn't written on the holonet.

"Well, this is what I looked like before the man in a mask and armor." Vader said as he sighed knowing he'd have to tell him everything, his parents and uncle obviously didn't. "So, what do you know about me?"

"I know you were a Jedi trained by Ben Kenobi, thus my old name." Kylo said as he tried to remember what felt like a different lifetime. "You lost your mother and wife, but I don't know anything about either of them. Mom and Uncle Luke were taken from you and you didn't know they were even alive until years later. You became Darth Vader thus the reason why they were hidden from you and the Emperor and then you and the Emperor died because of the Rebels."

Vader couldn't help but laugh and Kylo was lost as to why. "So you know nothing about me, mostly. Alright I will tell you about me. I was born to Shmi Skywalker, I had no father, I was fathered by the midi-chlorians, you know what that is right?" Vader asked and Kylo nodded. "Good, at least they taught you something. I was a child and my mother and I were slaves on Tatooine, same place where Uncle Luke was raised. I was found by a Jedi Master when I was nine and he needed my help to get off Tatooine, I helped. That is also when I met Padme Amidala, the Queen of Naboo, your grandmother, my wife. They had Republic Credits but they were no good on Tatooine, so they had no money for the parts. I offered to race for the parts in the Boonta Eve Classic, which was a pod race. I won and the Jedi Master made a bet with my slave owner and the Jedi Master won money from me winning. We got the money for the parts and I was freed, that was the bet he made with my owner, my freedom."

"You were a slave?" Kylo asked, surprised.

"I was, until I was nine. My mother remained a slave but was eventually sold and freed. We'll touch that later." Vader said continuing his story. "Anyway, I was freed and brought to Coruscant, which was the capital planet of the Old Republic and it was where the Jedi Temple was. I was brought there and I was brought in front of the Jedi Council. They rejected me, refusing to allow me to become a Jedi because of my age and my attachments and because they sensed the fear within me, fear for my mother being a slave on Tatooine which was always dangerous. The Master that found me, insisted that I be allowed to be his Apprentice, his Padawan. Anyway, it took time for them to think and I passed their tests and then I went to Naboo with Padme, Master Qui-Gon Jinn, who was the one who found me and Jedi Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"Ben Kenobi." Kylo said and Vader nodded, he always knew him as Obi-Wan not as his awful fake name which he used multiple times over the course of his life, even as a Jedi.

"Yeah, Ben Kenobi." Vader said feeling sick about that name. "We went to Naboo where the Trade Federation was blockading the planet, we went to help free the Nubians. I was brought as an observer since the Council never said yes or no after Jinn asked them again. I was ordered to stay in one of the Nubian starfighters with Artoo, which was Padme's astromech droid. Artoo and I ended up helping the Nubian starfighter pilots out when we went with them to destroy the Droid ship in orbit, without that ship the droids on the ground would be disabled. I was a lousy pilot then, not as good as I became over the years, but I succeeded and we destroyed the ship. On the ground though, there was a Sith Lord, Darth Maul."

"Darth Maul?" Kylo asked or said, Vader couldn't tell if it was a question or just him trying to remember the name.

"Yeah he was the Sith Apprentice to Darth Sidious when I was nine." Vader said not appreciating the fact that he is being interrupted every ten seconds but he has learned patience as a ghost, something Vader never had nor did Anakin. "Darth Maul killed Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and then was believed to be killed by Jedi Padawan OBI-WAN Kenobi." With emphasis on the OBI-WAN not Ben. "Before Jinn took his last breath, he asked his apprentice to train me. I was the Chosen One and only he believed it at the time. Eventually everyone, Sith and Jedi, alike found out which was why the Chancellor kept me close and befriended me. The Chancellor was the Sith Lord, the Emperor. He trusted me and listened and it was obviously his plan to get me to trust him and make it easier for him to turn me, but I am jumping ahead of myself. Let me rewind.

"Obi-Wan took me as his Padawan as he was promoted from Padawan to Knight which is just below the rank of Master." Vader continued. "We worked together over the years and we became close, he was like a father figure, a big brother, I never had either. Let's skip ahead ten years since that ten years was boring."

Vader explained the situation with Padme's attempted assassination and the plot by the Separatists and then his mother's death and what happened on Geonosis which triggered the events of the Clone Wars. He went into some detail about what happened during the Clone Wars then what happened towards the end when the Chancellor was kidnapped by General Grievous and Count Dooku and how he killed Count Dooku and the events at Mustafar which scarred and caused him nothing but suffering. The suspected death of Padme and the loss of his child, even though he later found out he had twins and that they were alive. He explained what happened since the birth of the Galactic Empire and the Jedi Purges and him hunting the Jedi and the Rebels and what he did to Leia and Han and his eventual turn and death. He explained, but not exactly in that order.

"Now, I had a reason for what I did." Vader said after silence. "What is your reason? If you think I am an idol to you, a hero, I'm not. I regret some of what I did but I was too far gone at that point and what I did, there was nothing I could do that would change anything. I couldn't kill the Emperor, I wasn't strong enough, I was disfigured and he was good at what he did, maybe evil but he was the Sith Lord, you can't be a Sith and not be evil. If I wasn't disfigured, I probably could've killed him but that is besides the point. So, what is your reason?"

"I was weak. Mom and dad were always fighting and never really cared for me." Kylo said as he was starting to get emotional. "They lied to me about a lot of things and about you. They thought I couldn't handle the truth or something but I could handle it. I don't hate you or what you did. I don't hate Anakin Skywalker either, he may have been a Jedi but he was still strong. Darth Vader was the scariest man in the universe, nobody said no to him or challenged him. That is what I want. I want that power, to be feared. I want to be like him. I don't want your disfigurements, but I do want that respect, that power. You were the most powerful Force user ever."

"Well, until I was disfigured, I was." Vader corrected him. "I also had the burden of being the Chosen One. I was supposed to be the one to bring balance to the force, which I did at the end right before I died but living with that isn't easy. I understand what you want, better than anyone else. But I don't want you living like I did. I was angry all the time, I hated everyone and everything which is why I killed people for no reason. I was like that because of what happened to me. Like I said, I was too far gone to correct my past, I couldn't make up for it, but I could save my son and I did. I failed my mom and Padme, my wife but I could save Luke and I did. That didn't redeem me and I am not looking for redemption, I don't regret everything, I believed in the Empire but what I am saying is that the Dark Side of the Force corrupts you, it feeds on you. It took me years before I was always angry and the Force was just there for me to use when I needed it. I always lived with the cold within me and it never went away, not even in the end. I am only here because I was the Chosen One and because I did my duty, I fulfilled my legacy."

"I killed my fellow Jedi Apprentices, like you." Kylo said. "I also killed my father. I can't change those and I don't want too."

"I am aware." Vader said as a matter-of-fact. "I never liked your father, I almost killed him once, I knew I was sending him to his death but your Uncle Luke saved him at the eleventh hour, unfortunately. Well you are here, so that is good but that is the only good thing that came from the whole situation."

"Well, I got rid of him for you." Kylo said with what looked like a smile.

"You did, but you didn't do it for me, you did it for you. You thought that by killing one person who may be able to bring you back to the light would help." Vader said with a look on his face, Kylo didn't know what the look meant. "Did it help?"

"Not really, not yet." Kylo said as he looked down, he wasn't sure what he felt, but he knew it only made him angrier.

"Well, killing your family isn't going to help you. It'll just make you more alone." Vader said knowing the feeling all too well.

"Maybe you're right. But he wasn't my father." Kylo said and Vader knew he had daddy issues, something he never had to deal with.

"Well, not all people know how to be parents. I mean look at me, even if I knew Luke and Leia were alive, I couldn't be a parent. Not looking like I did." Vader said with a chill running through him or some feeling, he was technically non-corporeal so he didn't know what the feeling was but it wasn't pretty.

"You have a point. But you didn't know. You can't be blamed for that. But he knew and just didn't care, he just fought with my mom and always went away on his ship, he'd rather be out there rather than be with us." Kylo said and Vader was proud, he is finally getting things off his chest, he needed it. Vader never did that, he kept everything bottled inside and killed people because of it.

"I can't argue against that. They always fought though. I figured that out when I died, I stopped by a few times but they never knew I was there, they couldn't see me." Vader said not even wanting to have a conversation with her, he did try to kill her on a number of different occasions. Luke on the other hand, was the only one who trusted him even when he shouldn't have. "What happened with Luke that made you turn against him and the Jedi?"

"It wasn't Luke." Kylo sighed. "It was the Jedi. I didn't want to be a Jedi, I wanted to be like you. He was always saying anger and hatred isn't the Jedi way. But that was all I felt. It was just who I was. It was... me."

"Well who do you want to be now?" Vader asked as Kylo looked down, he didn't have an answer, he didn't know.

"I don't know. I want to learn to be as strong as you were, to be as strong as Luke was-" Kylo said not really answering the question before being cut off.

"I don't care about that. I asked who do you want to be now? You have my DNA within you, you are strong and you will one day be as strong as I was. As strong as Luke was or is, he may be rusty but it is just like riding a speeder, it'll come back to him." Vader said as he tried to touch Kylo on the shoulder before realizing he couldn't, he forgot.

"I don't know who I want to be." Kylo honestly replied.

"Do you agree with the First Order or are you just working with them because you want to learn the Dark Side?" Vader asked trying to help him figure out his answer.

"I want to be like Darth Vader." Kylo said and Vader didn't know how to respond to that. "Why did you do what you did for the Empire?"

"Will being like me really make you happy?" Vader asked before answering his question. "I helped create the Empire, it made no point to eliminate it or help the enemy, I was with the Emperor so it made sense."

"What is being happy?" Kylo asked and Vader realized that was his problem.

"You are still young, Kylo." Vader said trying to get through to him to get to the root of his problems and letting him decide who he wanted to be, either way he wasn't disappointed or angry. Who was he to tell his grandson who to be?

"Really?" Kylo asked with a dead serious face. "I am twenty nine and you accomplished everything by the time you were twenty two. You were a hero as a Jedi then the Supreme Commander of the whole Imperial Military."

"That is true." Vader couldn't disagree with that. "But I wasn't prepared for everything, not really. I was overconfident and I did well, but mentally I broke. I had the Clone Wars the death of my mother whom the Jedi wouldn't allow me to see even though I kept having those visions. I lost everything by the time I was twenty two, I was crippled needing the suit and mask and I lost my wife."

"You're not going to change my mind." Kylo said confidently.

"I am not trying too." Vader replied. "I am your grandfather, if you want to learn then I am here. I could only teach you so much as a Force Ghost but I could still be there for you. You are lost, in turmoil. I know that feeling."

"So you keep saying." Kylo rebutted testing Vader's patience.

"You do realize if I was alive, you would be dead after talking with you for a minute, right?" Vader informed him. "You are Kylo Ren, you are not Darth Vader and you will never be me. Don't try to be. Try to be Kylo Ren. Make your name as well known as mine. But don't be a slave like I was, all my life. First to a Hutt then to Watto then to the Jedi Order then to Sidious. Don't do that. Be your own man. Your own Knight of Ren. Your own whatever the Force you want to be. Learn from my mistakes and those of Sidious' and those before us. I won't be disappointed either way. Just trust me when I say it, don't be me. You can be perfectly happy with a wife and kids or you could try to be like me so much that you'll be seventy and regret having nothing like the Emperor. He had nothing. I had nothing until the end. Don't be me. Oh and I like the suit and mask by the way, not my mask over there but your mask."

Kylo was going to reply as he looked at Vader's mask but he looked back and couldn't. Vader was gone.

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 **That is my short story! If you want me to continue it and follow Kylo and see where it takes us, I will. But only if requested. I also skipped a good majority of history, we all know what happened there was no need to make it any longer than necessary. The others will be in here as well, the next chapter, if you want one will include Luke and Rey.**

 **Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out my other story! The Force Awakens (Light Side!)**


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